The invention relates to an improved process for the separation of a liquid mixture of two components by contacting the mixture with an extracting agent in which one component is soluble and the other component is insoluble or substantially insoluble, subsequently separating the second component from the extracting agent which contains the dissolved component and finally separating the dissolved component from the extracting agent.
The process called extraction is well known, particularly for the separation of a mixture of two liquids. The insoluble component is called the raffinate, and the dissolved component is designated the extract. However, mixtures of a liquid and a solid material may also be separated in this way. The extracting agent is sometimes referred to as solvent, in particular when a single solid and a single liquid component are involved. Naturally, the mixture may comprise more than two materials, but, according to the present process, it is divided into two components.
One drawback of extraction processes is the necessity of expenditure of large amounts of energy in the separation of the second component from the extracting agent. For example, if distillation is employed for the separation, large quantities of heat must be used. It is the object of the invention to reduce the cost of this separation.